


Feel My Bones Quake

by SilverLynxx



Category: The Greatest Showman (2017)
Genre: Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, First Time, Fluff and Smut, M/M, bottom!PT, top!Phillip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-30
Updated: 2018-01-30
Packaged: 2019-03-11 14:19:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13526076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverLynxx/pseuds/SilverLynxx
Summary: “Talk to me,” Phillip says with quiet authority.Barnum exhales deeply through his nose, reluctantly sprawling back onto the bed. He doesn’t risk releasing Phillip’s wrist, and instead brushes his thumb against the pulse he finds there. The man suddenly looks much older, eyes and cheeks sunken with exhaustion, brow perpetually creased with stress, his smile a mere glimmer of its usual brilliance.It’s like the mask has suddenly fallen apart.





	Feel My Bones Quake

**Author's Note:**

> **Unedited**  
> 
> 
> So I'm primarily a Top!Barnum/Bottom!Phillip kinda girl, so it is endlessly hilarious to me that my first mature fic of this pairing is the exact opposite.
> 
> Also, this is my first mature fic in quite a number of years, so please forgive me!

“ _Fuck_ ,” Phillip gratefully expels to the empty apartment, turning to grin over his shoulder as an amused chuckle erupts behind him.

“Let me at least close the door before making invitations like that,” Barnum smirks, pushing the door shut and encasing them in low-lit silence.

Phillip laughs, but doesn’t dignify the ringmaster with a response. He instead wanders towards the window, looking out over the docks where their beloved tent loomed. He hears Barnum shuffle around behind him, removing his boots with telling thuds as he drops them to the wooden floor.

“Another sell-out. I have to admit, I didn’t think upping the shows would work, but I stand corrected - yet again - in the brilliance of P. T. Barnum.” Phillip grins and turns to look back at the showman. Barnum smiles warmly from the seat he’d taken in the armchair, his fatigue pronounced in the slope of his shoulders.

Phillip approaches the older man and threads his fingers through his hair, caressing the dark waves and smiling when Barnum leans in to his touch. Before long his wrist is encircled and his hand brought to Phineas’ mouth, where fluttering kisses are placed along his knuckles.

“Let’s go to bed,” Barnum hums.

Phillip rolls his eyes. “Mhm,” he acquiesces, slipping his hand from Barnum’s and taking the few steps to the bedroom; as cosy as the rest of the small home. He can feel the man watching him from the bedroom door as he sets his cane and hat aside and removes his shoes.

“How do you feel about taking the lead tonight?” Barnum queries easily enough.

Phillip pauses, needing to mask the fleeting signs of his surprise at the offhand offer. “You have never once allowed that,” Phillip points out, voice similarly even.

“Well, now I am. You’ve earned it with all your hard work recently.” The teasing tone is undeniable.

“Oh, how charitable of you,” Phillip snorts as he slips out of his costume, but even he can’t deny the thrill of excitement that stirs in him at the thought.

It never really bothered Phillip that Barnum was a tactfully dominant man by nature; if not always in the instigation, then at least in the actual act. But it didn’t mean Phillip hadn’t tried in the past to have his way with the alluring con-man, who promised people their dreams and somehow, in some way, made them come true.

But this was a very unprecedented shift.

He doesn’t have time to dwell on the offer when Barnum is suddenly in front of him, shirt already discarded and eyes dark with intent. Cupping Phillip’s jaw in his hands, he kisses him forcefully, feeling the younger man press back almost instantly.

“Don’t want to miss your chance, pretty boy,” Phineas rumbles merrily between their kisses. He gasps into Phillip’s mouth when the younger man surges forward, forcing Barnum back against the wall with a _thump_. Phillip growls against his lips, the kisses turning wild and bruising, his tongue depredating Phineas’ mouth and slurring their sighs together. His nails drag down Barnum’s sides and Phillip relishes in the resulting moan.

He fumbles with the ringmaster’s slacks, tugging the buttons open and shoving the material down Phineas’ taut thighs along with his underwear. His hands roam the newly exposed area with confidence, over soft intimate flesh and around to squeeze generous handfuls of his ass.

Barnum sighs, letting the heat and ferocity wash over him as Phillip goes for his neck next, nipping and sucking sharply at the skin.

“Phillip, god,” Phineas murmurs encouragingly, pulling the man closer. A hand takes hold of his swelling cock and Barnum jolts his hips with a smothered whine, grunting as Phillip tightens his grip and jerks him in several fast strokes. Free hand scruffing Phineas’ nape, Phillip drags the man away from the wall, perfectly at his mercy as he pushes Phineas backwards onto the bed. Phillip clambers on immediately after, seating himself on Barnum’s hips and pinning the man’s arms above his head, stretching him out fetchingly across the covers.

Phillip’s own cock twitches in his trousers at the strength of the body beneath him, moving pliantly at his whim. He grins wolfishly down at the long tanned figure, his body singing in triumph. This time Barnum hadn’t gotten the upper hand, hadn’t suddenly and infuriatingly flipped Phillip into the mattress and fucked him to a gloriously climax as he had so many times in the past.

Phillip takes a moment to relish his victory, their soft panting the only sounds besides the occasional squeak of the bedsprings.

Thinking about it, Barnum hadn’t put up much of a fight at all.

Phillip looks down at the older man still stretched atop the mattress; his arms crooked at the elbow with his wrists crossed above his head, held tight in Phillip’s grip. He observes Barnum lying in surprising silence with his eyes shut tight, his body expectant, yet thrumming with a tension Phillip hadn’t noticed before.

His stomach knots unpleasantly when he realises he’s not dealing with another elaborate Barnum ploy, a ‘play-dead’ routine to supersede him, but a genuine, apprehensive submission.

Trying to tamper down his immediate concern, Phillip eases himself down the man’s body, trailing his lips delicately over Barnum’s brow and down his cheek, settling at the corner of his mouth.

“Hey,” he whispers. The man’s long dark eyelashes flutter, and the creases at the corners of his eyes smooth out as they open.

“You stopped,” Barnum whispers back, confused by the abrupt change of pace.

Now Phillip can hear it, crisp and clear in the quiet; the tremor of uncertainty. And his eyes, deep depths of brown only inches away, stare up at Phillip with a vulnerability he had been ill-prepared to hide. It’s with a pang in his chest Phillip realises Phineas hadn’t expected him to really _look._ He’d expected Phillip to be too excited by the opportunity given to him to risk taking it - taking _Phineas_ \- slowly.

“Tell me what’s wrong.” Phillip keeps his voice low, but doesn’t risk giving the man a choice in the matter. “I’m your partner, you can tell me,” he coaxes with gentle kisses, letting their lips press and work together in between breathy sighs.

Phillip breaks away, moving further out of reach when Barnum tries to follow.

“Phineas…”

The man makes a throaty, frustrated noise, but Phillip refuses to relent. Taking a gamble, he sits up and swings his feet to the floor, ready to leave.

“Phillip, wait.”

Phillip stops as Barnum’s hand encircles his wrist, and he can see the war behind the man’s eyes. It makes Phillip long to put the man’s troubles at ease, but he refused if Phineas continued to hide behind his manipulations.

“Talk to me,” Phillip says with quiet authority.

Barnum exhales deeply through his nose, reluctantly sprawling back onto the bed. He doesn’t risk releasing Phillip’s wrist, and instead brushes his thumb against the pulse he finds there. The man suddenly looks much older, eyes and cheeks sunken with exhaustion, brow perpetually creased with stress, his smile a mere glimmer of its usual brilliance.

It’s like the mask has suddenly fallen apart.

“I want peace,” he rasps eventually. “I need to just...not think. Forget everything. Just – just _feel_ , just for a little while. No _circus_ , or _money_. No damn protestors or _critics_ every goddamned _day_.” Shame and tension floods the man as he stumbles through his admission, like a dam inside him has fractured. “I - I just want, I _need_ -” he shakes his head, words failing him.

Phillip stares at the man crumbling before him; P. T. Barnum, who, even at his lowest moments, was relentless, idealistic, and steadfast. But right now he was none of these things. It seemed even the greatest of men, Phineas among them, was not infallible.  

“It’s been too much. The new acts, the extra shows. Why didn’t you tell me, Phineas?” But Phillip already knows why. Phineas was proud; a man who’d clawed his way from rags to riches on his own merit, doing so with added flare simply because he was a showman, and only slightly petty.

Phineas shakes his head. “Forget it,” he mutters, releasing Phillip’s wrist and turning his back on the younger man. After a moment, Phillip gets off the bed.

The old springs squeak in protest as Phillip returns, jerking a startled Phineas onto his back again. He straddles the man, the last of Phillip’s clothing now absent. Leaning down, Phillip cajoles Phineas into another kiss, persisting despite his mouth remaining stubbornly unresponsive. It’s not long before Phineas relents, letting Phillip slip his tongue between his lips to encourage small gasps of pleasure.

“I’ve got you,” Phillip murmurs, dragging his lips along to Phineas’ ear where he nips and laps lavishly to Barnum’s breathy gasps. “I’m going to make you feel really good,” he promises huskily, his hand sneaking down to caress the soft firm flesh of his cock, coaxing it back to full hardness.

“Damn, Phillip, more,” Barnum implores, hips rocking to Phillip’s torturously slow pace. Phillip hums in amusement, teasing his thumb across the slick head and swallowing the moan it incites.  

“Wait for me,” he breathes. Raising himself up to reach for the single bedside table, he claims the jar of oil stored there. He dips his fingers in, slathering them liberally. “Spread your legs,” he orders.

“Bossy,” Barnum murmurs with a twitch of a smile as he obeys. Phillip runs a warm hand over Barnum’s thigh, feeling the muscles flutter beneath the bronze skin.

“Relax,” he hushes, kissing across the man’s stomach as his fingers slip between the ringmaster’s legs, toying along the soft skin. Phineas’ heels dig into the bed and he twitches away. Phillip grips the man’s hip with his free hand, anchoring him in place as he teases the ring of muscle with his fingertip, slowly pushing in.

“A- _ahh_ ,” Phineas squirms, jaw clenching at the strange, invasive sensation. Phillip continues to murmur soothingly, kissing and petting his hip while keeping the older man still. Phillip finds his focus has tunnelled; nothing now existing beyond Phineas and the searing heat engulfing his finger.

He’s awed by the tightness, his responsiveness, the first and only clue Phillip needs to realise that Phineas has never done this before, and the thought has Phillip’s cock shamefully throbbing with a wave of arousal.

He thrusts his finger slowly, until Phineas’ body relaxes and his tense silence gives way to tentative sounds of pleasure. He slips in a second finger, fighting to keep his pace steady for the sake of Phineas’ comfort. The muscles clench around him, drawing him in. Phineas openly moans, hips jerking down to meet his fingers.

Phillip lets his own quiet groan slip as he stretches the man, thrusting his fingers in faster.

“Better?” Phillip murmurs, licking his lips.

“Yes,” Barnum hisses, placing his feet flat on the bed to grant better access. Phillip whispers a breathless ‘ _fuck_ ’ in response.

“You have such a filthy mouth,” Barnum chides. It devolves into a whine when the blissful stretch is suddenly gone, and Phillip is hovering over him. Barnum stares up at his partner, eyes glassy and limbs loose with pleasure. Phillip grins and doesn’t deny the accusation.

Smearing a generous amount of oil onto his cock, Phillip teases his already painfully hard erection until it’s suitably coated. With sweat rolling down his back, Phillip takes in the sight before him; Phineas Barnum prone on the bed, legs spread in invitation and eyes gleaming with a carnal hunger.

He covers the larger body with his own and pulls the man into a kiss, pushing deeper and harder until it becomes a heated, vigorous exchange of lips and tongue. His cock presses against Phineas’ hole, and he pins him down to suppress the resulting jerk.

Phillip moans long and loud as he pushes in, feeling the tight muscle give way to him, drawing him in to Barnum’s willing body.

“Phi-Phillip,” Barnum mutters through a wince, hands scrabbling at the man’s back.

“I’m here; I’m here,” Phillip gasps, “Relax, almost there. You feel so good Phineas, god you’re so tight, you feel so good, so good,” he rambles feverishly, finally sinking home with a shuddering gasp. Phillip stills, his forehead pressed to Phineas’ shoulder as he commits every twitch and tremble beneath him to memory.  

Phineas’ throat works soundlessly, and Phillip peppers the damp skin with sweet kisses, murmuring encouragingly as Phineas’ adjusts to him.

“I’m going to move,” he warns quietly. He shifts his hips, drawing back to the sound of soft whimpers Barnum tries and fails to stifle. “It’s going to start feeling really good,” he assures through the haze of his own bliss. He rocks back in with a soft slap of flesh and Barnum chokes on a moan.

“Again,” he mutters.

Phillip smiles, hiding it against the man’s shoulder, and obeys. He draws back and thrusts forward with renewed force, then again, and again. He picks up a steady rhythm, the fervent pleas pushing Phillip to a brutal pace, striving to fuck every last drop of tension out of the ringmaster.

“Ph-Phillip,” Phineas groans out, voice thick and heavy with lust. He reaches down for his own cock with a needy sigh. Phillip steals the man’s lips in a kiss and knocks his hand away, taking his prize with a firm squeeze that has Phineas moaning rapturously.

He was close; Phillip could hear it in the pitch of Phineas’ moans, the way his muscles clenched like a scorching vice around him. The feeling was overwhelming, surrounded by the smell of sweat and sex, and listening to Phineas’ sweet, helpless sounds.

Feeling his own pleasure coil tight inside him, Phillip hitches one of Phineas’ legs higher and sinks in deeper, sharing a gratified moan with the older man.

“That’s it, Phin, come for me, let it all go,” Phillip groans, thrusting in hard with a final firm stroke to his cock. Phineas’ back snaps into an arch as he climaxes with a broken cry, his legs winding around Phillip and locking him in place as thick spurts of come coat both their chests.

Phineas clamps down to an almost painful degree and Phillip sobs as his own release hits him like a wave trying to drag him under. He gasps for air, shocks of pleasure shooting through him as Phineas’ body milks him for everything he has to give.

His trembling arms are his only warning before he collapses onto Phineas with a grunt, both men shuddering through the aftershocks as the world tilts around them.

He can hear Phineas murmur; words or nonsense he’s not sure, but he lets the soothing deep voice wash over him, whispering his own nonsense back. Fighting the draw of sleep, Phillip slips free, pecking Phineas’ lips in apology when the man grunts in discomfort. Reaching over the edge of the bed and retrieving what is potentially a sock, he wipes the mess from their chests as best he can, before lazily settling back alongside his partner.

He cups Phineas’ jaw and tilts his head back. It’s with a rush of fondness he takes in the man’s blessedly lax expression, his dark eyes now lidded with a more comforting exhaustion. He doesn’t have words anymore, he merely leans forward to kiss Phineas long and slow, until sleep becomes impossible to resist.

Listening to Phineas’ quiet snores against his chest, Phillip tenderly runs his hand through his dark hair before sleep claims him as well.


End file.
